Chernysheva N.V., Azhigulova A.I. State Policy in the USSR Regarding Abortion in 1936-1955. Humanities in Siberia. 2025. Vol. 32. No. 4. Pp. 43-52.

Abstract

The article is devoted to the abortion policy of the Soviet state in 1936–1955. The authors consider the abortion policy of the USSR in 1936–1955 in the context of demographic modernization, distinguishing three stages in this period. The fi rst is from June 1936 to June 1941, i.e. from the moment of the adoption of the Resolution of 1936 to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War; the second is from June 1941 to May 1945, i.e. directly during the war; the third is from May 1945 to 1955 – after the end of the war and before the lifting of the ban on abortions. By banning abortions in 1936, the government tried not only to compensate for the negative eff ects of revolutions, wars, famines and other upheavals, but to curb the natural course of demographic changes. There is a short-term eff ect of the ban, with persistent negative trends (an increase in child and maternal mortality, the criminal nature of abortions, violations of women’s reproductive functions, eff ective law enforcement mechanisms undeveloped, assigning doctors the “function of an investigator”, rejection of state intervention in the sphere of personal and family issues, and others). Abortion policy is analyzed through the prism of demographic policy measures, taking into account the demographic situation prevailing in the USSR in the 1930s and 1950s. By mid-1950s, the pre-war population numbers were restored, the overall mortality rate steadily decreased, and the birth rate decreased. In the 1950s, the reproductive behavior of the country’s population was changing. With the background of the negative consequences of the abortion ban, these trends contributed to the abolition of this practice. New historical sources are being introduced into scientifi c circulation (periodical press materials, documents of the Department of Obstetrics of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Health, the USSR State Planning Committee). Pointing out the general trends of population reproduction in the USSR at each stage, the authors determine the consequences of the ban on abortions, attempts by the state to interfere in the sphere of personal life and family relations through the activities of law enforcement agencies and health authorities.